Who's Responsible for UFC & WWE Going Full Disney?
UFC 324 and Survivor Series 2025 reveal TKO's true blueprint.
The person UFC and WWE fans should be mad at is Mark Shapiro. Not Dana White. Not Triple H. It’s Mark Shapiro who should be the focus of fan frustration.
After TKO signed major media rights deals with both ESPN (WWE PLEs) and Paramount (UFC), The Wall Street Journal warned the public what was forthcoming.
Money can't buy love for Dana White & Mark Shapiro
I don’t know about you, but scoring a $7.7B dollar deal with Paramount would make me one very happy camper if I was running UFC.
With TKO’s major rights deals mostly locked in for the next several years, Emanuel and Shapiro will now focus on integrating other assets it acquired from controlling owner Endeavor Group, including Professional Bull Riders and IMG, the sports and marketing consulting firm. Shapiro will also be tasked with keeping UFC and WWE content fresh.
As we’ve highlighted throughout 2025 at The MMA Draw, Dana White is nothing more than a Brand Ambassador for UFC. Triple H is currently Dana White circa 2019, before COVID hit the world, but he’s well on his way to brand ambassadorship status as well.
That’s why Ari Emanuel is grooming Triple H for the podcast, business, and political roundtable circuit. The way that TKO curated Dana White in an Endeavor-flavored closed media loop to build his lifestyle and fitness brand, that same playbook is currently being executed for Triple H.
Unbelievably, there was still a group of fans online demanding Dana White explain himself for the UFC 324 fight card announced during Thanksgiving.
A very loud chorus of digital boos rained down upon Triple H and Bruce Prichard for a rather picturesque yet milquetoast Survivor Series 2025 campaign at Petco Park in San Diego.
The truth is that Mark Shapiro and his right-hand man, Lee Fitting, are large and in charge. Fans unhappy with the way TKO value-extracts violence with UFC & WWE should focus their lasers on Mark Shapiro.
As Mark Shapiro and TKO’s front office reportedly prepare yet another schmoozing blitz with institutional investors on Wall Street, both UFC & WWE fans must understand why things are the way they are at TKO. Once you understand Mark Shapiro’s playbook, it will radically change your outlook on TKO’s matchmaking and their policy on value-extracting violence.
Remember, Mark Shapiro is an architect and the agent for Stephen A. Smith. The SAS era that has swallowed up ESPN for a generation is exactly the ‘bold’ and ‘loud’ and ‘character-based’ presentation that falls right into Mr. Shapiro’s wheelhouse.
The Shapiro Playbook for UFC & WWE presentation is layered, but not complicated once you break it down. It’s the Disney and Hollywood movie studio mindset.
Mark Shapiro gave the game away last month. People have already forgotten and moved on. We didn’t.
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